Neuroticism and Mental Health in the Shadow of COVID-19

Pages: 199-204
Tarika Sandhu and Jasvir Kaur (Department of Psychology, Punjabi University, Patiala, Punjab)

The World Health Organization proclaimed the COVID-19 upsurge as a worldwide pandemic on 30th of January, 2020. The virus has impacted major aspects of human existence from physical to mental health across the globe. Chiefly, the COVID-19 epidemic has prompted depressive symptoms, social isolation, and a decreased sense of well-being contributing to increased psychological distress for people at large (Holman et al., 2020; Armitage & Nellums, 2020; Brooks et al., 2020). It becomes vital to consider the role of pre-existing factors such as personal dispositions in determining the mental health outcomes of individuals especially during the pandemic. Research has equivocally demonstrated that, Neuroticism as a stable personality disposition has been significantly related to mental health outcomes in the past (Michielsen et al., 2014; Garbarino et al., 2014; Wenzel, 2015; Gale et al., 2016; Nikcevic et al., 2021). Since Neuroticism is associated with increased sensitivity to stressful, unpleasant or traumatic situations (Hisler et al., 2020) its dominance would affect how people perceive and adapt to the COVID-19 epidemic as well. In the same light, the current study investigated the predictive role of Neuroticism in mental health of adults during COVID-19 epidemic. For this purpose, data was collected online through Google forms from adults, age ranging 20-35 years. The time of data collection ranged from 3rd week of April, 2020 to 2nd week of May, 2020. The status of COVID pandemic in India during this time was almost 1 lakh cases (95,698). General Health Questionnaire (GHQ) by Goldberg (1978) was used to assess the mental health of the participants. GHQ assesses mental health on four domains: Anxiety and Insomnia, Severe depression, Social dysfunction and, Somatic symptoms. Also, Neuroticism was assessed with the Big five personality inventory-44 (John & Srivastava, 1999) which is gleaned from the NEO Five-Factor Inventory (NEO-FFI) by Costa and McCrae (1985). The total sample comprised of 68 adults (29 Males & 39 Females). Results clearly showed the predictive role of Neuroticism in poor mental health associated with COVID-19 pandemic.